Canadian tourist charged with alleged molestation of nine-year-old boy in Florida: court docs

A Canadian man was arrested in Florida last week after allegedly molesting a nine-year-old boy at an oceanfront hotel while his mother sat nearby.

Officers from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department were called to the Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort Hotel & Suites on Dec. 29 to reports of the alleged crime, according to arrest documents obtained by National Post.

The accused, a 47-year-old from Stony Plain, Alta., just outside of Edmonton, was arrested the following day and has been charged with lewd or lascivious molestation of a victim under 12 years of age, a first-degree felony under Florida law.

If convicted, punishment can include life imprisonment or a split sentence involving at least 25 years in prison, followed by a lifetime of probation or community control, according to Hanlon Law in St. Petersburg.

In a probable cause statement, officer Patricia Cardoso De Camargo said the alleged victim was outside and seated next to his mother as she used her computer when he was approached by an unknown caucasian man.

He alleges the man “touched him on his chest and on his private parts in a sexual manner,” after which he attempted to tell his mother, but “she was busy on her computer and talking to another unknown subject.”

The boy said he was scared and tried to escape further touching by moving to an adjacent table where another family was seated. He said the man followed him, approached from behind and resumed the alleged groping.

“The victim stated he told the defendant to stop touching him,” De Camargo wrote.

The alleged interactions were confirmed by “several witnesses,” she wrote, all of whom provided the same accounts of the incident.

One of them was the father at the table where the boy sought refuge. He told police he saw the defendant and another man approach and initiate a conversation with the boy’s mother and that the initial touching occurred while she was distracted.

He said that after the boy asked to sit with them, the defendant returned and proceeded “to once again touch the victim in a sexual manner” before the boy asked him to stop, at which time he said the defendant left.

When he learned the boy didn’t know the man, he “became irate and confronted the defendant, who locked himself in his room.”

The accused was being held without bond at the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s Paul Rein Detention Facility in Pompano Beach as of Monday morning, according to Local 10 News.

National Post has contacted Fort Lauderdale police for an update on his status.

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